Festival Survival Guide: Stay Safe and Have Fun

Posted on 27th February 2018.

Festival season is fast approaching. Whether you are an experienced festival goer or not, it is important that you know how to keep yourself and your belongings safe. Festivals are exciting weekends where people come together as one, listen to their favourite music artists and enjoy everything that the festival has to offer.

They are fun experiences, but there can be a much darker side to festivals that first-timers may not realise. In 2016, five UK festivals saw approximately £174,663 worth of possessions stolen. With every situation comes potential risks and dangers you should be aware of. Follow our festival safety guide and don’t be a victim this festival season.

Personal Safety

Avoid binge-drinking

It is likely that you will be enjoying a few drinks over the weekend. However, don’t drink yourself into oblivion, you will be less alert towards potential dangerous situations. Be aware of drink spiking (when someone deliberately adds alcohol or drugs to your drink without you knowing). Don’t share drinks with people that you don’t know or don’t trust.

Know your way around

When you first arrive, make sure to learn your way around the festival. Locate the medical tent should you need to use it, locate the toilets, food stalls, bars and camping zones. Festivals can be confusing places and it can be very easy to get lost.

Take medication with you

If you are taking specific medication, don’t forget to bring it. It would also be worth bringing some sort of painkillers – no one wants to watch a live music set with a painful headache from the night before!

Stay hydrated

It is hard enough as it is to remember to drink enough water every day. At festivals, you are completely distracted by so many things that some people may go up to 3 days without tasting a sip of water. If you are drinking alcohol and are spending all day in the heat, it is ESSENTIAL that you are drinking enough water.

Protecting your Valuables

Take less valuables worth stealing

If you don’t absolutely NEED it, don’t bring it. Don’t bring fancy cameras, the camera on your smartphone – if you have one – will work just fine. Bringing more valuables worth stealing means you are at a higher risk of having them stolen. It’s also worth remembering that the more you bring, the more you will have to carry. Less is more, trust us.

When you sleep, put valuables in your sleeping bag

A good tactic for keeping your valuables safe when you are asleep, such as your wallet and your phone, is to put them inside your sleeping bag at the bottom. It’s highly unlikely that somebody looking to steal your belongings will think to look in your sleeping, especially when you are in it.

Get a tent with a torch

Torches can be easy things to forget. It won’t be until you arrive, and the sun sets that you realise you didn’t bring one. It will be your best friend in terms of navigating around the campsite at night and if you hear someone approach while it’s dark, you will easily be able to see them.

DON’T lock your tent

Now, some people will advise you to lock your tent as it provides your valuables with extra protection. However, locking your tent only attracts unwanted attention – thieves will think that you have something locked away that is worth stealing. If they believe this, a lock on a tent zip isn’t going to stop them getting what they want.

Festival Gadgets

Waterproof phone case

Drinks will be flying and rain could be falling, so it’s a good idea to protect your phone with a waterproof case. You will be able to record your favourite bands no matter what the weather is like. If a drink comes flying towards you in the crowd, your phone will stay dry – even if you don’t!

Tent finder app

You might think that you have the brightest and most recognisable tent, but chances are, somebody else will have it. If you go for a generic green one, thousands of people will have the same one. The Tent Finder app lets you mark where you pitch your tent using GPS, helping you to find it when you finally decide to hit the hay.

Portable phone charging device

We all know that smartphones aren’t known for their long-lasting battery life. You will be wanting to take pictures and videos and you will need to be able to contact your friends in the festival (if you lose each other). Taking a good quality, portable charging device means that you will never be disconnected – unless that is what you want.

Checklist

These are just a few items you will need. To find out what else you should bring check out – Festival Camping Checklist – and don’t forget your wellies!

Churchill Security is a national provider of high quality festival security. We provide security guards across the UK and have provided tailored security packages for over 20 years. Get in touch to find out more about our festival security packages.

John is highly motivated and an asset to Churchill's team with over eight years of experience within the industry. As a director in the company John is responsible for managing the client relationship team, John ensures that every client is listened to in order for Churchill to provide the best, high quality, cost-effective service that meets their specific requirements.